One eye on Florida

I’m standing here listening to an Orlando radio station on I Heart Radio. Why am I doing this? To hear the latest updates on Hurricane Irma.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you now know that I just moved out of Orlando, FL. My husband and sons are all Florida natives. All of the boys grandparents live in Florida. Richard’s sister lives in Florida. Many of our friends live in Florida.

So, Richard and I have been keeping tabs on Irma. We are constantly talking about the path. We are concerned. We got married in 2004… the year of the hurricane! That was the year that Florida was hit by 4 hurricanes. We remember the devastation that the state endured at that time. But, after seeing the effect that Harvey had on Houston, it makes this seem even scarier, hard believe I just wrote a post on that in August.

Most Floridians don’t even flinch until a storm hits Cat 3 status. This storm has been a strong 5, at least it has been downgraded to a 4, but that doesn’t mean it won’t strengthen again. All Florida school have been closed. All Florida sporting events have been cancelled.

This storm is such an unknown. The track it is taking it not a path we have dealt with in Orlando. They are expecting this storm to hit and hit hard. The amount of rain that is coming with this storm is crazy. The storm surge will be even crazier. They are expecting the storm to come ashore around Miami and just go straight up the state and still be a major hurricane when it gets to Central Florida. They are expecting the effects, in Orlando, to begin late Saturday and go through Monday. That is just crazy. So this weekend I will spend a lot of times watching the NOAA site, listening to the radio, calling/texting family and friends and praying that the track is wrong and that it stays out at sea or downgrades again, or something.

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4 thoughts on “One eye on Florida”

My husband and I lived in Florida for three and a half years and only experienced the briefest tropical storm. Honestly, I don’t think it was even a tropical storm by the time Orlando felt anything. Regardless, that tiny little storm was barely anything. I can’t imagine what it is like down there right now. We still have friends that live down there and I am keeping them all in my thoughts. Same to your family and friends.

My daughter was evacuated to Sarasota from Winter Park (she’s in college there) and then quickly (once the storm headed west) evacuated again out of Sarasota to Atlanta. I’ve never even thought about Florida until she went to school there 3 weeks ago. Now I know every detail of that state! I feel like it’s my second home! She is safe and sound (without power) back in Winter Park awaiting the reopening of her school. What a week!

Glad to hear your daughter made it safely through the storm. It’s crazy how many people were effected by this. Also, how many people were evacuated multiple times because of the path. Hope she has power back and can settle back into her college life